Sheriff defends handling of crash

IOWA CITY (KWWL) -- A crash brought traffic to a stop on Interstate 80 on Christmas Eve. Some drivers were stuck for hours.

Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek says the Johnson County dispatch received more than 100 calls of people upset police did not divert traffic around the crash.

Friday, Pulkrabek responded saying, "The problem with that is that secondary roads do not have the ability to handle that much traffic. We would have to have deputies at every intersection until the traffic was able to get back on to the interstate."

Pulkrabek also scolded those drivers who tried to jump the median or drive on the shoulder to avoid the back-up. "All of that is unfortunate and is partly the reason we have crashes and people die," he said.